The Big Seven: A Faux Mystery

Summary

Jim Harrison is one of our most renowned and popular authors,and his last novel, The Great Leader,was one of the most successful in a decorated career: it appeared on the New York Times extended bestseller listand was a national bestseller with rapturous reviews. His darkly comicfollow-up, The Big Seven, sendsDetective Sunderson to confront his new neighbors, a gun-nut family who liveoutside the law in rural Michigan.

Detective Sunderson has fled troubles on the home front andbought himself a hunting cabin in a remote area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.No sooner has he settled in than he realizes his new neighbors are creatingeven more havoc than the Great Leader did. A family of outlaws, armed to theteeth, the Ameses have local law enforcement too intimidated to take them on.Then Sunderson’s cleaning lady, a comely young Ames woman, is murdered, andblack sheep brother Lemuel Ames seeks Sunderson’s advice on a crime novel he’swriting, which may not be fiction. Sunderson must struggle with the evil withinhimself and the far greater, more expansive evil of his neighbor.

In a story shot through with wit, bedlam, and Sunderson’sattempts to enumerate and master the seven deadly sins, The Big Seven is a superb reminder of why Jim Harrison is one ofAmerica’s most irrepressible writers.